Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

I'm curious, do you think the NUC8i3CYSM would be enough to run Dolphin at 1080p? It's a ~$300 PC that has the distinction of being the only traditional NUC that has a dedicated GPU (Even if it is Radeon 540 with 2GB of GDDR5 RAM).

The full specs are as follows
Core i3 8121U 2.2 GHz
8 GB RAM
AMD Radeon 540

While the entire piece of hardware seems to straddle the line of possibility the part that has me worried the most is the i3U. However, given the size of the device it should have a decent thermal envelope. Also a minor disclaimer this is mostly theoretical. If I do buy this it'll be quite a ways out I occasionally get on a kick and like to dream of tiny smaller than HTPC class PC I can stick under my front room TV and run Dolphin Games like a console so I'm throwing out my latest interest to see if it's possible.

You will be more limited then even the kinds of performance you would get out of a pc built for the same price in a SFF case. The ps2/gc/wii level of emulators is just about the very limit of what this box can handle so there will be performance issues on more demanding titles and less demanding ones should run well.

The actual dedicated GPU means less in emulation (dolphin in particular) since I have seen the integrated APU on the Ryzen 2200 or 2400 handle 720-1080p upscalling in dolphin quite well. The 2200 or 2400 ryzen APUs are also much better suited to singlethreaded performance under constant load then the 8121u in the crimson canyon NUC. So a build with one of those (or a 3000 series APU when they come) in a sff case (you can get reasonably nice looking ones for living rooms at reasonable prices) might be a better idea.

The way to look at the intel NUC is like a laptop with a i3 low power CPU, a modest dedicated GPU, and no screen/keyboard/trackpad. Add all of the missing parts back and you are basically at a low to low mid range laptop price like those systems with an i3-i5 useries CPU and a mx130/mx150 GPU you can find from china in the $500-800 range depending on size, weight, and extra features (along with brand)... I wouldn't recomend one of these for PCSX2 or Dolphin and I wouldn't really recomend this NUC for basically the same reasons. If you are buying it mainly for emulation you will be dissapointed in the limitations you will encounter... if you are buying it for another reason and just want to play around with emulation then it will do some and you will probably enjoy the nice bonus of the games it can run well.

(07-20-2019, 02:40 PM)TKSilver Wrote: [ -> ]or a 3000 series APU when they come

They're already available for purchase as they also launched on July 7 alongside all of AMD's other new product releases.

Just keep in mind that they use Zen+ CPU cores and not Zen2 (AMD's APUs lag by a generation because they're essentially their laptop processor dies put onto an AM4 PCB and their laptop parts tend to lag 6 to 9 months behind desktop parts).

(07-20-2019, 06:45 AM)bomblord Wrote: [ -> ]has the distinction of being the only traditional NUC that has a dedicated GPU (Even if it is Radeon 540 with 2GB of GDDR5 RAM).

This is not true and the only Intel NUC I would ever recommend for emulation needs is the Intel Hade's Canyon NUC aka the "nuc8i7hvk" (the product page does a poor job of explaining the CPU but it's basically a soldered-to-the-motherboard multiplier-unlocked 4core/8thread Kaby Lake i7 with a lower stock clockrate paired with the Vega embedded discrete GPU equivalent of an RX 470). And due to its NUC form-factor, I imagine that undervolting both the CPU and GPU would provide the biggest performance benefit rather than traditional overclocking.

Do note that it's a whopping $900 USD though, and you still have to add RAM and storage, and that it requires laptop-sized RAM.

Now there is also a lower-end variant with a bit slower GPU and CPU (the "nuc8i7hNk", note the N as the second-to-last letter), but it seems to only be $100 cheaper at best which doesn't make it all that beneficial in my mind since, if you wanted to save money, you'd be going the Ryzen APU route anyway, but hey whatever you want to do.


Nevertheless if that's too expensive and/or too overkill performance-wise nor do you want to get a used N-model for $600 or refurbished N-model for $680 of that Hade's Canyon NUC, then getting a Ryzen APU without a discrete GPU (remember to use decently fast dual-channel RAM!) means you can get a truly console-like form factor when used inside of something like the ASRock DeskMini A300 (note that it was originally designed for the 2200G and 2400G, so it might not come shipped with an updated BIOS required for booting with the newer Zen+ based 3200G and 3400G APUs at this time).

...or if you really want to use a discrete GPU (anything faster than a GT1030, otherwise go Ryzen APU) but don't want to shell out $800+ on a NUC, then just go the traditional mini ITX motherboard route with either an AMD or Intel CPU ideally using the Zen2 or Coffee lake architectures.




...I may have gone a bit overkill on the hyperlinks. >_>

(07-24-2019, 04:16 PM)Nintendo Maniac 64 Wrote: [ -> ]They're already available for purchase as they also launched on July 7 alongside all of AMD's other new product releases.

Just keep in mind that they use Zen+ CPU cores and not Zen2 (AMD's APUs lag by a generation because they're essentially their laptop processor dies put onto an AM4 PCB and their laptop parts tend to lag 6 to 9 months behind desktop parts).



This is not true and the only Intel NUC I would ever recommend for emulation needs is the Intel Hade's Canyon NUC aka the "nuc8i7hvk" (the product page does a poor job of explaining the CPU but it's basically a soldered-to-the-motherboard multiplier-unlocked 4core/8thread Kaby Lake i7 with a lower stock clockrate paired with the Vega embedded discrete GPU equivalent of an RX 470).  And due to its NUC form-factor, I imagine that undervolting both the CPU and GPU would provide the biggest performance benefit rather than traditional overclocking.

Do note that it's a whopping $900 USD though, and you still have to add RAM and storage, and that it requires laptop-sized RAM.

Now there is also a lower-end variant with a bit slower GPU and CPU (the "nuc8i7hNk", note the N as the second-to-last letter), but it seems to only be $100 cheaper at best which doesn't make it all that beneficial in my mind since, if you wanted to save money, you'd be going the Ryzen APU route anyway, but hey whatever you want to do.


Nevertheless if that's too expensive and/or too overkill performance-wise nor do you want to get a used N-model for $600 or refurbished N-model for $680 of that Hade's Canyon NUC, then getting a Ryzen APU without a discrete GPU (remember to use decently fast dual-channel RAM!) means you can get a truly console-like form factor when used inside of something like the ASRock DeskMini A300 (note that it was originally designed for the 2200G and 2400G, so it might not come shipped with an updated BIOS required for booting with the newer Zen+ based 3200G and 3400G APUs at this time).

...or if you really want to use a discrete GPU (anything faster than a GT1030, otherwise go Ryzen APU) but don't want to shell out $800+ on a NUC, then just go the traditional mini ITX motherboard route with either an AMD or Intel CPU ideally using the Zen2 or Coffee lake architectures.




...I may have gone a bit overkill on the hyperlinks. >_>

Hey, I'm really appreciative of all the effort you put into that.

I'm aware of the Skull branded NUCS (larger and prohibitively expensive as you mentioned) which is why I used the term "traditional". The asrock deskmini is cool and I was really hyped initially when I seen their release but the pretty much non-upgrade (small clock boost and marginally better performance) of the 3400G over the 2400G made me decide to look elsewhere and it seemed that GPU in the NUC outperforms the integrated 24/3400G one. Regarding CPU performance I thought it might just be "good enough" as Dolphin doesn't gain anything over a base level of CPU performance so if it was good enough I could save some work and have something smaller.

Additionally it's not that I'm wanting a small form factor PC because I lack the hardware to run Dolphin as there is literally a PC behind me (my brothers) with a 7th gen i5 and a Radeon 480 and I own over 20 i5-3470 desktops up in my room I could throw a 1030 in I just wanted something super tiny that could be put in my entertainment center.

(07-24-2019, 11:45 PM)bomblord Wrote: [ -> ]pretty much non-upgrade (small clock boost and marginally better performance) of the 3400G over the 2400G

Maybe it doesn't mean much to you, but as someone OCD about fan noise the fact that the 3400G (and only the 3400G) has a soldered IHS rather than the 2400G's TIM'd IHS is a pretty good upgrade in my book.

...though the 3400G now comes with the Wraith Spire which won't fit in the DeskMini requiring one to use the smaller heatsink that comes with the DeskMini which itself is actually worse than the Wraith Stealth (this isn't an issue for me since, if I ever get such a DeskMini in the future, I'll likely be using a different cooling config altogether).

(07-24-2019, 11:45 PM)bomblord Wrote: [ -> ]it seemed that GPU in the NUC outperforms the integrated 24/3400G one

The GPU requirements for Dolphin are less than its CPU requirements - the iGPU of a 2400G should be able to run games with 3x IR + 16x AF + asynchronous uber shaders (particularly in Vulkan) without issue - you'll notice in games like Rogue Leader that it's really the CPU that should almost always hold back the iGPU in Dolphin (this is admittedly a slightly older video, so newer Dolphin builds should have better CPU performance...though Rogue Leader doesn't even run nowadays ).

(07-24-2019, 11:45 PM)bomblord Wrote: [ -> ]I could throw a 1030 in I just wanted something super tiny that could be put in my entertainment center.

As long as it's not the abomination known as the DDR4 version of the GT 1030.

I was interested in the small factor units for some time: intel, zotac, later gigabyte. But after all, you end up with buying missing RAM and HDD or SSD.. You pay for tiny can, always worse performant and more expensive than traditional rigs. Now i opting for ITX, even with used parts will outperform NUCs. When it comes with size, i guess buying good ZEN APU or Intel with 630HD iGPU is enough for rare gaming and moderate scaling in dolphin and pcsx2. If you wont need dedicated GPU, your case should be quite small.

Just my experience , but I recently picked up an NUC, 'nuc7i7bnh' and it handles dolphin well at 2x and sometimes 3x resolution. This is with the iris plus 650 graphics. I'm sure you could compare the passmark of the CPU in mine to the 8th gen ones and see where the i3 stands. I'm sure they're similar! 

*Afterthought*

I got mine used on ebay for about 320USD(unit and ram) and popped in an ssd I had at home. I wanted to get a new 8th gen one, but this one was a good deal and cheaper. I was thinking about putting a video on YouTube to show how well these little things run, but 'ETA Prime' does a lot of that already. He shows off the slightly newer I5 version of the 8th gen NUC's. I think it was the NUC8I5BEH. If my 7th gen dual core one can handle dolphin, then the 8th gen i3(NUC8I3BEH) should handle it too. They start at about 300USD.